Comment on: Evolutionary paths for the formation of different types of fluid inclusions in the H2O-NaCl system by Mao et al. (2023)

Abstract

Mao et al. (2023) illustrate phase assemblages in a variety of H2O-NaCl-rich fluid inclusions, and the “evolution” of these assemblages at temperatures below homogenization conditions. A fundamental knowledge of the application, merits and weakness of microthermometry seems to be absent. The authors do not clearly indicate which H2O-NaCl fluid model is used to calculate the “evolutionary paths”, but the results are identical to the results from the software AqSo_NaCl (Bakker, 2018, 2019). The claimed “first time” presented evolutionary path was already included in AqSo_NaCl, that contain all possible “evolutionary paths”, and offers abundant calculation procedures in the H2O-NaCl system. The suggested application to recognize or understand post-entrapment modifications does not contribute to our knowledge of re-equilibration processes, and does not offer a comprehensible method. The selected evolutionary paths (isochores) of relatively high-density inclusions must be corrected for host mineral expansivity and compressibility, that result in completely different homogenization temperatures and dissolution temperatures. The presence of abundant errors, deficiencies, and misplaced and omitted references highly reduces the quality of this manuscript.